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Zimbabwe teachers abandon schools
Stephen Tsoroti, Ohmynews
October 02, 2008

http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=383803&rel_no=1

For almost three weeks, schools has been literally closing down in most districts of Zimbabwe as teachers strike for pay rise and better working conditions.

Schools have closed and several more are facing the same situation. Some of boarding-students are going back home at a time when they are preparing to write their year-end examinations, placing even greater pressure on the recipient schools.

School children from most government schools in the country have had no lessons since the school term opened because of the teachers strike.

Takavafira Zhou, the president of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), said children cannot be expected to write exams when they have not attended lessons. He said his Union has sent letters to the authorities saying the most logical and realistic thing was to postpone the exams "or even declare that 2008 is altogether a forgotten year and we may start afresh next year, assuming that the new deal will work and perhaps conditions would have improved."

Practical exams for science students have already started and Zhou said in some schools "grounds people" are invigilating the exams because of the teachers" strike. "It's a tragedy. Even June exams, the markings were abandoned because the teachers refused to mark. So assuming that they will write, who will mark?" quipped Zhou .

PTUZ, the biggest grouping of educators in the country, told OhmyNews that 15,200 teachers had migrated to neighbouring states, such as South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Swaziland, since the beginning of 2007.

Raymond Majongwe, PTUZ's secretary-general, confirmed that the mass exodus of teachers was forcing schools to close, while many institutions were operating with a skeleton teaching staff.

"Matabeleland North (Province) has been the most affected one as a result of teacher shortages," said Majongwe. He said 8,000 teachers had left Zimbabwe after the first term, while another 7,200 left after the second term.

Over the years teacher's salaries have not kept pace with Zimbabwe's official inflation rate of more than 6,000 percent, while neighbouring South Africa has embarked on a recruitment drive for teachers in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) to bolster their own teacher numbers.

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